Robert E. Horton

Robert E. Horton (born May 18, 1875, Parma, Mich., U.S.—died Apr. 22, 1945, Voorheesville, N.Y.) was an American hydraulic engineer and hydrologist who established a quantitative basis for the analysis of the drainage of networks of streams. The empirical rules he discovered and set forth are generally referred to as Horton’s laws.

After graduating from Albion College, Albion, Mich., in 1898, Horton spent eight years with the U.S. Geological Survey before joining the engineering staff of the New York State Barge Canal. From 1911 to 1925 he was associated with the Department of Public Works and the attorney general’s office of New York state. Among numerous consulting positions, he served the Albany, N.Y., Board of Water Supply 1924–32. He was president of the American Meteorological Society in 1939. Horton’s contributions include the invention of the water-level gauge and a joint for wood-stave pipes.